Turn ChatGPT into your personal assistant, creative partner, or strategy coach — no coding required.
What If You Could Train an AI to Think Like You?
Using ChatGPT out of the box is powerful.
But here’s the truth: once you realize you can create a custom version that understands your unique goals, workflows, and personality?
That’s when things start to click.
I’ve built GPTs that help me analyze real estate deals, brainstorm creative projects, plan travel, and even think through business strategy.
And if you think you need to be “techy” to do this — you don’t.
You just need a little structure.
That’s what this post is for.
Why I Started Building My Own GPTs
At first, I was using the regular ChatGPT for everything. And while it was helpful, it often felt too broad. It didn’t quite remember the details. It lacked the focus I needed for more specialized tasks.
While regular ChatGPT was helpful, I realized it didn’t remember enough context or stay as focused as I needed — especially when I wanted to go deeper into specific topics.
So I built my first GPT: a real estate investing assistant that understood my strategy, risk tolerance, and how I evaluate deals.
It wasn’t perfect at first — but that’s the point.
You train it like a partner.
The Mindset Shift: Think Like a Coach, Not Just a User
One of the biggest changes I had to make was in how I prompted.
I had to shift my mindset and become more aware of how I framed my prompts — the more specific and realistic the scenario I gave, the more useful the GPT became.
You’re not just asking questions.
You’re teaching it how to think like you.
That means giving it your preferences, goals, constraints, values — all the things that make your process yours.
What You’ll Need (and What You Won’t)
To build a GPT, you don’t need to write code or download special software.
I used ChatGPT’s built-in ‘Create a GPT’ feature, which is only available on the paid plan (not the most expensive one — just the first upgrade from free).
That’s it. One step up from the free plan, and you unlock the tools to build your own AI assistants.
How I Set Up My GPTs (and How You Can Too)
Here’s how I created my first GPT — and how you can do the same:
To make it useful, I fed it information about my investing strategy — including my goals, past experiences, what’s worked (and what hasn’t), what I want to avoid, and how I typically analyze deals.
The more real and specific you are, the more effective it becomes.
I also gave it a personality — one that feels collaborative and reflective of my own way of thinking.
I designed it to be a natural interaction — more like a thinking partner than a robotic assistant.
Where to Start: Step-by-Step
- Open ChatGPT (Pro version required).
- Click your profile icon.
- Click ‘My GPTs’.
- Hit ‘Create a GPT’.
- You’ll see a window asking what you want to build. Start with this prompt: “Ask me 10 open-ended questions to help you understand what kind of assistant I want you to be.”
- Answer honestly. Be specific. The more you give it, the better it gets.
- Name your GPT, add a custom icon if you want, and click Save.
Boom. You’ve got your first AI co-pilot.
Don’t Try to Make It Perfect (Yet)
One mistake I made early on was trying to make my GPT perfect right out of the gate. The truth is, you can always go back and train it more.
Your GPT evolves over time.
Use it for a week. Then go back and tweak the instructions based on what worked and what didn’t.
That’s part of the process.
How I Use GPTs Now
I now have multiple custom GPTs for different areas of life — one for real estate investing, another for planning travel, and others for creative projects and artistic work. The best part? I can keep training the ones that are most useful so they get smarter over time.
Each GPT becomes like a mini expert trained specifically for you — one for each lane of your life.
But What If I’m Not Tech-Savvy?
Totally fair.
But building a GPT is less like coding and more like journaling with structure.
It’s a lot like starting a running habit — at first, you don’t know much. But the more you do it, the more you learn your pace, your limits, and your strengths.
You don’t need to know everything.
You just need to start.
The Best Surprise? The Time You Save
What surprised me most is how much time it’s saved me — tasks that used to take hours now get done in minutes, and I can spend that energy on higher-value work.
When you build the right GPT, it’s like hiring a version of yourself that never sleeps, never gets distracted, and never asks for a raise.
You Don’t Need 10 — Just 1 That Works
Start with one.
Pick a part of your life that’s repetitive, strategic, or mentally draining — and build a GPT around that.
It could be content creation.
It could be budgeting.
It could be parenting hacks or business strategy.
Just start with one.
Train it.
Use it.
Refine it.
You’ll be amazed at what’s possible when AI starts thinking with you, not just for you.
Escape the Race 
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